Forum:Collecting Foglio interview questions
In the past, some excellent fan wikis have scored interviews with the people directly involved in the property; actors, writers, etc. So, inspired by this and my brain burning with questions, I started wondering about the possibility of us doing something like that. Then it occurred to me that we already know of someone who will be at SDCC and has informally interviewed them before. So I approached this lovely person with the idea of having her do an interview on behalf of the fans. The idea of getting this on video has been tossed around. As far as I'm aware, the Foglios have not been approached about any of this, so it's not a definite thing. This is all very casual and depending on the whims and kind natures of those involved, as well as time constraints and other considerations. (I can imagine this getting pushed back to a less busy con too.) But! We can start collecting questions. I can't guarantee there will be time to ask all of these questions, but if there's anything you've ever really wanted to ask, and you won't get a chance to ask in person, please add your question to the list below! I've put numbers in parentheses following the questions, to indicate how many people want to ask that. If you like a question, add 1 to that number. (By the way, I have no idea if Cheyenne Wright will be attending SDCC in '09, or what his availability is, but I don't see a reason not to include questions for him too, just in case.) -- mnenyver 16:11, 7 May 2009 (UTC) Questions ''Business * Do you have any plans for T-Th-Sa now that the re-colored Buck Godot is finishing up? '(3)' * From first sketch to final polish, how long does it usually take to do one page? '(3)' * Cheyenne Wright does such an amazing job with digital inking and coloring. Does he ever make suggestions on the original art or other contributions? How much free reign does he have? Has his interpretation of a page ever surprised you? '(2)' * What sort of hardware and software does Cheyenne use? '(2)' * It's not uncommon for webcomics to take a vacation once in a while, either going on hiatus, using guest artists, or filler material. Do you forsee ever taking a break? '(4)' * You guys have flourished in a very challenging field. Do you have any advice for people pursuing creative or non-traditional careers? '(2)' * Will we be treated to any more radio theater podcasts? '(1)' * You've said, in relation to the GG RPG, that you're waiting for a natural story break ("hit by a bus" was invoked). When is that break coming (roughly), what are your general plans for proceeding after this break, and what lies after it? Presuming no bus, of course. '(3)' * Those of us reading elsewhere hear a lot from Howard Tayler, Pete Abrams and ironychan about buffer. Does ''Girl Genius have a buffer, and if so, how do you manage its size/timeframe? (2) * Will the extras like "Revenge of the Weasel Queen" or the Cinderella story ever be published in a bonus comic volume? (2) * How much mutual influence would you say you and the Pinis have on each other, since you're both independent genre publishers (with female creators when mainstream is still not exactly female-friendly)? (1) ''Personal * Has going online changed the way you write or draw? (eg. page layout, story pacing, aware that a certain page will be a weekend cliffhanger, use of off-camera voices that make the fans wonder, etc.) ''See answer section below (3) * Semi-related: Now that the comic goes online first, how do you choose your color palette for the pages? Do you choose what will work best on a printed page or what looks best on a monitor? Is there a big difference? (1) * You get so much fan reaction to every single page as it's updated, as opposed to getting reactions to a collection of published pages all at once. How has daily fan feedback, or anticipation of fan reaction, influenced your creative choices? For example, have you ever not done something because it might upset fans? Has it been a help or a hindrance to the creative process? (3) * Both Phil and Kaja have mentioned arguing over plot points or characters at various times. Could we get just one example? (1) * Ask :D (2) * What's the worst job you've ever had? (1) * How do you keep up the momentum and energy for such a long project? What do you do to refresh the creative process? (2) * Have your children taken an interest in any of your works? (2) * Does being a parent influence what you write? (eg. Agatha and Zeetha as role models of strong, smart women - in the same vein as Princess Leia or Wonder Woman) (3) * For Phil: Do you have a favorite character to draw? If so, which one? (1) ** Kaja, same question (1) ** Cheyenne, same question (although maybe from a colouring aspect) (1) * Which character is the most fun to write? * In interviews, the two of you have specified H. Rider Haggard, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells as influences, but Edgar Rice Burroughs seems to have not been mentioned. Would you count Tarzan's multitudinous lost cities or Barsoom's nearly unkillable Earthman among the bloodthirsty Martians as another set of influences? (2) * Do you have any die-hard fandoms? Are there any comics or other media that keep you up at night, send you to midnight showings or release parties, etc? Or have you had these kinds of fandoms in the past? (1) * In the Biblio File interview, both of you mentioned enjoying opera (and we've seen some reflections of that). Any operas in specific? Does the storytelling format inform your storytelling at all, or is it more of a music-appreciation aspect? (2) * What music do you enjoy and/or find inspirational outside of opera? (2) * Can you tell us a bit about the process of sitting down to write or draw? Do you have any particular habits, like putting on music or only working during certain hours? (1) ''"Girl Genius" Universe * ''Girl Genius is known for its fuzzy approach to canon and the story we're getting is the exaggerated version. When writing the story, do you ever start with "what really happened" and go from there or is what we see what we get? Does a more real, more boring version of Agatha's story languish in top secret notes somewhere? (And if it's not exaggerated, then why does Agatha want to kill you?) (2) * In the original drafts, Gil was intended to be evil. Fans of Gil really love the character the way he is now, with his heroic and romantic streaks, but the use of Tarvek in the story may make some wonder: Do you ever regret making Gil a good guy? (2) * Have any of the characters been altered in a big way after they first appeared in the comic, but in ways that are not obvious to the reader? In other words, have there been any retcons? In one of the audio interviews, Phil said no retcons (1) * What is the average land speed of the unladen Jaegerkin soldier? (3) * Not that you have to divulge anything, but is there any point in story ahead that you're really looking forward to seeing on a completed page? (3) * Will we ever learn the backstory on some of the supporting characters? Jägers, for instance? (2) * Why does Jenka wear a mask? (2) * What does Othar's visor do? (1) * Will we ever get prequels or sequels to the story we're reading now? Maybe as an interlude? (2) * The map of Europa for sale on Cafepress: can we take that as canon? Is it a literal map, meaning can it be laid over another and matched up, or is it more interpretive? (1) * Stipulating that geography will warp and flex to serve the story's needs, what areas other than Great Britain and Oslo are drastically different to our world's, and how extensive are the Wastelands? (2) * Will we ever get the story of how Klaus became a construct, since it's hinted at so tantalizingly in the Secret Blueprints? (2) * Phil has mentioned that yes, the story will go to Skifander some day. Would you be willing to give us a rough idea of when this might happen? (3) * Can you please tell us if Omar von Zinzer was a revenant and died by Agatha's inadvertent command, or was he actually killed by the locket interfering with his brain as his brother thought? (1) * Will we get to see the story of Deathwish Dupree as a drawn radio drama? (1) * Did Gil always know his father was the Baron or was there a moment of revelation at some point? (1) ''Previously Answered * We tend to think of Kaja as the writer and Phil as the artist. How much do your roles overlap? (In other interviews, they've both stated they do both. Maybe we can rewrite this to get a less general answer?) '(3)' Replies and Comments So since I needed to do a lot of stuff around the house, I picked up an mp3 player and downloaded a few podcasts, mostly about webcomics. Phil Foglio answers some of the questions above in this Talkshoe interview. You HAVE to listen to this interview.(Ahem. Klaus fans.) A lot of basic stuff, several questions we already know the answers to, but also one or two "EEEEE!" moments as he talks plot stuff. I had to stop the player so I could cackle madly over one in particular. Anyways... my points are -- should we remove any questions already answered in previous interviews? (The idea being that we post the answers in relevant articles here.) And can everyone help come up with more plot or character related questions? I realized the list above is lacking in that department. '— m' (talk) 00:27, 7 June 2009 (UTC) :I like how we handled the Open Questions segment with crossing out the question and posting the links to the answers and/or the article because then we'd know where to look. I would endorse moving the answered question to a different section thought. -- Axi 01:19, 7 June 2009 (UTC) Buck Godot/What's New answer Biblio File Part 1, @ 24:30 (ref the Interview list) I: Will there be new ''Buck Godot once after all the old issues finish going up, or maybe some new What's New for the internet age? P: Um, probably yes to both, although I don't know when. I've got the new Buck Godot series set up, all pretty much written in my mind. K: Oh God laughs. P: And we have... I always kind of planned doing more What's New.... :Good catch. I'd still like to ask the question, though, as that interview was last year and we're getting closer to the end. They may have a more solid idea of what they're doing now. — m (talk) 19:58, 7 June 2009 (UTC) Side-story answer Biblio File Part 1, @ 33:15 (ref the Interview list) I: Jen (Gen?) from Georgia writes: It feels like Girl Genius is building up to an epic ending. After the main story ends, can we look forward to more stories set in this universe, such as an anthology or possibly a sequel? K: We have a lot of Girl Genius left to go... what it's building up to is ... 'the end of the first season'.... ...we can start over with a new series... a jumping-on point.... P: The series is building up... to a place where we could stop if we had to. From this point, we would be able to do independent Girl Genius stories before picking up again with the larger arc. K: We started working on this back in '93... we're only partway through the adventures that we know.... :Yes, that was me. XD I'd still like to ask the one I wrote in the list above, if that's okay. Might lead to an interesting tangent. — m (talk) 20:02, 7 June 2009 (UTC) :: Just throwing things in as I find them, to help edit the questions to greater efficiency. *grin* -- Corgi 17:41, 9 June 2009 (UTC) Answers on writing I found another podcast interview, this one from Writing Excuses (with Howard Tayler - yes, that Howard Tayler - doing much of the interview). They answer a couple of the writing questions here. No, they don't retcon. And they don't intentionally write cliffhangers. If anyone can think of a way to rephrase those questions, please go for it. Aside, I'm sort of dismayed at how many of these questions have been answered before! — m (talk) 17:55, 12 June 2009 (UTC) Also we can find very interesting questions in the blog http://www.interview-c-questions.blogspot.com